Dropping pre-i686 from the archive

[Lea Gris]

Jeff Bailey a écrit :

> 2) i486 for small / embedded systems like routers is an ideal target for
> µbuntu.

Agree with all the above including not cited.

> 
> Tks,
> Jeff Bailey & Matthias Klose
> 
> [0] http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.0/criteria.html
> 
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_Pro
> 
> [2] 37 seconds to load writer on a Pentium 3 750 with 192MB of RAM.

20 seconds to load oowriter2 on a Pentium 4E 3.0Ghz multithreaded with
512MB of RAM,  53MB raw disk access, reiserfs file system.

hdparm -t /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
Timing buffered disk reads:  162 MB in  3.01 seconds =  53.88 MB/sec

All this with current up to date Dapper.
Linux coincoin 2.6.15-10-686 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Dec 27 18:42:30 UTC 2005
i686 GNU/Linux
lea at coincoin:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 15
model           : 3
model name      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
stepping        : 3
cpu MHz         : 3007.911
cache size      : 1024 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 3
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge
mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe pni
monitor ds_cpl cid
bogomips        : 6017.61

processor 1 same à 0

All of this to show, openoffice load time should not show significant
difference bedween a medern system and old PentiumIII. (shame)

Furthermore, I also agree a distribution like Ubuntu should not try to
be everything Linux could be. Splitting it as µbuntu, server, desktop
and so on, is ok if it serve developpment effort mutualisation in scale,
and it doesn't disseminate ressources and quality.

Dropping pre-i686 for Dapper+1 seems appropriate for workstations and
high end servers versions of Ubuntu. It doesn't for rich embeded devices
or even terminal server (RTSP), There are still good use for old PC
hardware as good enough desktop diskless X terminal clients or even as
diskless rich clients.

I'll try to do this rich diskless client things based on Ubuntu Live if
I can find time to learn enough about the setup.

-- 
     Léa Gris - http://www.noiraude.net/
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